


Stupid Decision

by themuffintitan



Category: South Park
Genre: Fluff, Highschool AU, Insomnia, M/M, Multi Chapter, clyde also is a football jock idiot, clyde and craig dont even know eachother, craig has braces and wears tennis shorts aha, idek crushes?, lots and lots and lots of fluff to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 00:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4685660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themuffintitan/pseuds/themuffintitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Craig has not slept for more than an hour and a half in more years than he can count on his fingers. Somehow he can manage to play tennis and take it seriously, keep his grades up, and even socialize, but if there's one thing he's not used to doing while sleep deprived, it's falling for his best friend.</p><p>His best friend happens to be the guy he gave a nosebleed after launching a tennis ball at his face, Clyde Donovan. He seems pretty cool about it, but in the midst of trying to apologize to this wild dork that just appeared, he makes the stupid decision of taking him to a Starbucks to "make it up to him."</p><p>Credit to craigtxt.co.vu for the idea! He brought up Craig in tennis shorts and the beginning of the plot and everything that happens after the first in the fic from here on out is what we spammed the skype chat with for 2 hours. ( look at his art wink wonk )<br/>**I'm thinking of re-doing this, and by that I mean I'm probably going to redo it. I'm pretty mad that I told myself I would make a nice multi-chapter fic and it just crashed and burned, with awful writing that isn't my best ability at all. The story won't change, I'm too in love with what he and I came up with, but it'll be better this time. THX</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oookay!!! This is probably the fourth multichapter fic I've decided to do and I'm trying so incredibly hard to not let it crash and burn after the first chapter. I think this one has a chance because I actually have the motivation n stuff.... I'm so frickin pumped for this entire idea if you think they are dorks in this first chapter you just WAIT * rubs my little gay hands together *
> 
> I went through and revised a bit but it's still probably crap so heheh

The night before wasn’t even as awful as it normally was, but my eyes were fighting to close and I was sure my practice partner could see the fifty shades of grey under my eyelids from across the court. Three hours of sleep was a new record, it was about twice as much as I get on a regular basis. I still couldn’t help the fact that I was fucking tired. Even the sound of the hollow, highlighter yellow ball getting smacked against plastic back and forth over a net didn’t distract me. The automatic reflex of my wrist and arm swinging the racket was enough to pull off practice by myself. Keeping my eye on the ball was children’s work.

At least, that’s what I thought before the sound of wailing erupted from the other side of the court. The foreign noise snapped me out of my haze and my vision detected a wide male figure kneeling down and covering his forehead with curled fingers. Tweek, who I had been playing, had already dropped his racket and turned around to see if the guy was hurt. I hadn’t been paying attention as expected and must have swung too hard. The ball zipped completely out of reach of Tweek and charged straight at an innocent bypasser’s head.

“Oh shit,” I said under my breath, hands clenching the racket as I started toward the guy. Although the dude was down on his knees, ( and whining so loud even the hand cupping his mouth couldn’t muffle it enough ) it seemed the closer I got the larger he grew in size, height and arms and probably everything that could further make me feel skinnier than I already was. On him was a football jersey meant to cover up a bunch of padding so it looked baggy but draped his torso efficiently none the less, leading me to confirm that this big guy was on the football team. I just hoped I didn’t jack up his face with my swing because this guy could probably kill me if he wanted.

“Hey, guy, you okay? Shit, I’m sorry I didn’t mean for that to happen-” I stuttered. I couldn’t even see his face as his bangs were covering his eyes and his hands-the entire lower half of his face. He was trying to keep his sniffles in and muttering a cracked, “Owww ow ow ow oh my god “ from underneath his fingers. I didn’t want to grab his hand away to see if his lip was bleeding or if I broke his nose, my fingers just stood there empty, twitching like they should be doing something. Tweek however, just stood laughed his head off while I sat in a situation I didn’t know how to control.

“Clyde, why are you such a baby?” Tweek choked, crouching down beside me. The brunette, who Tweek now claimed to be named Clyde, snapped his head up and I flinched. His eyebrows furrowed above his emerald orbs in an attempt to glare through his messy bangs but it made no impact through his puffy, tear-filled eyes. His hand held his nose.

“Says you ya-” he removed his hand and formed a defensive fist down at his side when a trail of maroon ran from his nose. I would’ve reacted the second it happened but, I caught myself in the moment of two seconds ago, when he revealed his face. I almost thought I hadn’t done much damage because his face looked anything but broken up close-teeth white and perfectly in line ( unlike mine, which have needed all different kinds of braces and retainers since 6th grade ) and plumpish lips that curled a bit when he spoke. He was pretty damn attractive. I didn’t even notice anything wrong until the stream of blood trickled down his mouth and jump-started me out of the trace I fell into, stuttering even more than before.

“F-fuck okay hold on I’ve got tissues in my bag- h-hold your head back-” I stood up and ran to my bag, while Tweek helped the guy up and shouted at me from behind something like, “NO!, You’ve gotta lean forward when you have a nosebleed, Craig! He’ll choke on his own blood!” in the midst of panting and freaking out.

By then I was just zipping and unzipping pockets frantically looking for the little pack of Kleenex  and I shouted something similar to “Y-yeah, okay!” knowing that that guy was gonna probably punch me if I didn’t do something quick. I gripped the package and while I was throwing out everything contained in my duffle-bag, I found an old Starbucks gift card Tweek probably gave me when he went out and grabbed a ton. I raced back with the card in my hand as well and slipped a tissue out and into Clyde’s hand.

“Sh-Shit dude I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t paying any attention uh… C-can I make it up to you or something? Like, Starbucks or something later?..” I lost my ability to speak English when his eyes looked toward me with what I couldn’t translate. Either death or confusion as to why I was helping him anyway. His sniffling quit after Tweek had so terribly insulted him and under the bloodstained tissue, a strange smirk had formed on his lips.

“Jeez dude, you hit me in the face with a tennis ball and you want me to go on a date with you?” He laughed at his own joke and I wanted to say something but couldn’t, looking over at Tweek who was rolling his eyes and shoving Clyde’s shoulder, but not receiving any reaction. I cocked my eyebrow and decided to take him on differently from then on. Way to piss a guy off. Why am I even helping him?

“Take it or leave it, buddy,” I said, holding the gift card from out of my back pocket and away from him at my side. Clyde removed the tissue, leaving his nose dry but covered in nasty, crusty, residue. Thankfully, his nose wasn’t broken. And neither was the first genuine smile he gave to me before standing up straight again and towering over me by like, five inches.

“Sure, pal-” he said. I think I got a bit of chills down my arms from his height, but I just to forced a smile on my lips, my eye twitching “-just lemme wash up and we can go if you’re done,” he continued. I just nodded and realized what I was doing. Clyde ran through the doors and tossed the used tissues into the trash can beside them and disappeared. I sighed and started toward my bag to cram my racket and everything I scattered in the area before into it.

* * *

That’s how I found myself listening to some guy I had just met suck the last of his 9 dollar coffee from a cup across from me. My thumb was gliding across my phone’s screen while I stared aimlessly at my social media trying to find something interesting. Or, at least something to take my mind off what I was doing.

I’ll be honest, I was pretty angry at myself for taking this guy for a drink, much less anywhere, when I could've been at home. Back then, like 30 minutes ago, Clyde was right. I had this sudden, quick to last attraction for him and in that time I managed to let my brain take over and low key ask him out while I had an excuse. Now the image of Clyde giving up on drinking every last drop and just chewing on the straw was pissing me off big time. Mainly because whatever had caused me to ask this guy out was still lingering there, just so much less that I was aware of this dumb decision I have to get through now. My pointer finger made it’s way to the top of my phone and shut it off, stuffing it back into my pocket. I crossed my arms and leaned back into the booth, shutting my eyes. The smell of ground coffee beans and whipped cream filled my nostrils and it was calming me down. I felt so deep in thought and mind that I started to nod off right there in the booth. Clyde noticed and gave me a concerned look, setting down his drink and a hand up in case he needed to shake me awake again.

“Hey,... Craig. Are you okay?” the sound of my name pulled me out of dozing off the slightest and I turned back at him.

“Oh… Oh yeah I’m jus… I’m jus kinda tired. Dind’ sleep much,” I murmured. I still must have been acting stupid around him to mention my sleeping problem after the first time he even addressed me by my actual name. Clyde leaned back into his side of the booth and folded his arms on the table.

“Well… didja eat this morning?” Clyde sounded similar to a concerned mother and I would’ve been surprised, but on the car ride here I had witnessed 5 different other sides of him anyway, whether it was about music or whatever he rambled on about in the long 5 minutes it took to get there. He was the most open person I’ve ever met in my life, and if it weren’t for weirdly feeling attracted to that trait I probably would’ve thrown him out of my car and drove away. Either way, I skipped breakfast that morning. I let my eyes close themselves again and shook my head at him. Clyde shifted his hands in shock and nudged my leg with his foot.

“Dude, you’re gonna fall asleep right here in public. You gotta eat, “ he said, making me open my eyes to a glare again.  I could seem his hands flat on the table with his elbows apart, staring intensely at me like it was a huge deal. I couldn’t say it wasn’t a big deal that I didn’t eat or sleep, but who’s he to tell me how to live?

“I’ve got food at home, I’ll eat there,” I grumbled. I didn’t need a conversation about me. This is a favor for him. Clyde furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed.

“ How the heck are you alive?? I’ll buy you something,” He said reaching into his pocket. My eyes were fully open again and attempting to bore holes into his face with their stare. God, he was annoying. I stood up and looked down at him.

“I’m fine, I will eat at home. I’ll fee-” Clyde interrupted me by once again towering over my own height and whipping a 10 dollar bill out of his pocket.

“YOU are going to faint right in the middle of the street. Let me buy you a cookie or something, Jesus!” His glare melted when he spoke before walking up to the counter away from the booth. I felt my cold stubbornness disappear while I watched him point in the container of baked goods on the counter and hand the cashier his bill. I stood frozen in place as I watched him carry a bag back to our seat. Whelp, I couldn’t deny it anymore. He spent his money on me. He tossed the food onto the table, taking a seat again.

“Go on, eat, you big dork,”  He wasn’t glaring anymore, but instead smiling and holding his chin up to look at me with his hand. I almost tried to be childish and stick my tongue at him but realized what I was thinking. Instead I just took the chocolate chip cookie, unwrapped it,  and stuffed a piece I broke off into my mouth, all without taking my eyes off him. He had his eyebrow cocked and his eyes calm, gazing right back at me while I ate, satisfied by his victory. I started to feel my cheeks turn the tiniest shade of pink, and I was already convinced it wasn’t because I gave into him.

_Is this what it feels to be cared about? Or do I just never notice…? Why’s he doing this?_

My heart started to pound harder than it normally did and it was kind of difficult to breathe knowing he was just sitting there watching my face heat up. We spent the rest of the time there in silence again, if you don’t count the unbearable sound of my heart throbbing in my ears. I kept my eyes turned away for a majority of it, but found myself giving him quick glances to see what he was doing. He sat most of the time taking my place and scrolling through his phone, never tapping his fingers to text or call another person. Just waiting. He could’ve left after that. Sure, it was the probably the polite thing to do, waiting until I finished but for whatever reason it made me really happy. I secretly started to wish right there that we could do this more often, that this wouldn’t be the end of it. Of course, that felt stupid to do with the guy I had just met.

I crumpled the plastic in my fist and stuffed it into the paper bag. He looked up and gave me the same smile from before. My heart fluttered and I knew I was in trouble. It’d only be a trainwreck from there. I thought I’d wait it out until tomorrow. Maybe he’d come back.  I had no idea.

After he exited the car at his house all I really wanted was to sit in silence with him again. Maybe even talk to him. Do something. I had no idea. And I’ll say, that’s how I pulled through with it for a while.


	2. It's Not Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig has had quite a forgetful weekend, and a long enough one to completely wipe his mind of anything have to do with Clyde. Clyde was just another dumb boy that he managed to let himself get attracted to, but he left right away just like all the others. It's just like normal. He finally got at least four hours of sleep Sunday night and is ready to show his "full power" through his backhands, until a familiar face leans up against the wire fencing and completely throws him off track.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugghHhhHH I apologize for taking so long with this chapter. first of all, my laptop is kinda busted ( like, big time busted it wont even start up anymore heh ) so writing is a bit slow. I'm relying on my brother's computer when he's off working or out, which is also what I'm kinda doing now.
> 
> second of all this chapter is like 2k words worth of filler. you get a bit of craig being a blushy mess toward the end but thats about all I got for this one. these first two chapter suck serious eggs and im sorry this fic is literally all fluff and i wanna get to the good stuff hehe :3c i promise better writing await when I'm all pumped to produce words in spans of 5-6 hours.
> 
> anyways here you go
> 
> ( rn i'm rushing to write this summary my family is kind of home and for whatever reason italics and bold dont paste so ill edit those later ugh sorry bout that 
> 
> and again not revised yet vbjdfskhabvhjksabh)

I did manage to pry the bigger boy out of my thoughts over the weekend, though.  At the time it seemed like every other dumb guy I’ve run into in the past. After I stepped out of the car in my own driveway I spent the rest of the day telling myself, “He won’t come back. He’s just like every other stranger. Also, you hit him in the face with a goddamn tennis ball and he spent his money on you.”

It wasn’t much of a heartbreaker, really. The stunning and caring Clyde ( I hadn’t even learned his last name ) seemed legit in my head for the first three hours but after he left he was just another person I figured I would forget about. He had walked out of my life as easy as he stepped out of the vehicle and crossed his front porch. But… he came back. Probably not for me, but somehow he came back into my line of sight and conversation, shifting the gears of my little social life into motion again.

I had my knees bent at a ready position, palms gripped and sweaty around the rubber of my racket. I’d felt my pulse racing before Tweek had taken his first few practice swings. 1 extra hour of sleep makes a huge difference. I felt so focused and on task that I could’ve probably snatched a fly zipping past my ear with my own hand. Or it could’ve easily flown in front of my face and exploded. My eyes stayed fully open until the end of the school day unlike usual, much more they were probably bulging and judging by Tweek’s hesitant glances back in my direction as he set himself up, he could tell I was either pissed off or had completely lost my sanity, ready to destroy him with my backswings. Due to the recent event of nearly breaking one of his friends’ nose, I didn’t blame him for flinching ( more frequently than he usually does, anyway ).

Tweek stared at his feet, avoiding eye contact as he approached the baseline, the fuzzy yellow ball gripped in the fingers of his left hand, racket in the right. When he lifted his chin up to face me, bleachy yellow hair bouncing with his every move, his eyes, those the color similar to a dark silver maple, widened and he coughed. Frankly it didn’t startle anyone surrounding us, as Tweek was grunting and “augh!”-ing quite often with tennis balls soaring left and right. A little bit of my motivation slipped between the somewhat satanic grin I flash when I’m competitive when he lowered his racket. In the split second that Tweek eeped and my grin softened the slightest, Tweek only had to mention the once forgotten boy’s name and my heart slammed its brakes.

“Clyde, what are you doing here?” Tweek questioned, eyes aimed past my face. I straighten my stance and looked over my shoulder, immediately spotting the familiar brunette boy in similar colors since I had last seen him. My grin melted just as my shoulders had, lowering the racket secondly after my partner. He wore a red and white letterman jacket unbuttoned and hanging at his sides, much like the sleeves bagging under his arms. His hands gripped the wire fencing and leaned forward on its perimeter, smiling at the other boy in front of me.

“ The field is closed for maintenance. So I came to watch,” he replied. The smile he had stitched under his nose is still debatable on whether it was smug or realistic. However, after his eyes scanned the court Tweek and I were standing on his chocolate orbs met with mine and he gave me a most certainly genuine, toothy grin, and waved. I didn’t know how to react, but out of trying not to seem like more of an asshole to this guy I returned his bright greeting with the most forced lip smile, like hell I’d intentionally flash the dumb wires all over my fucked up teeth, squinted eyes and everything.

Why the hell is he back? He’s here for Tweek, obviously, he didn’t even say anything to you.

Thoughts started to flood my brain after turning back toward the net. All new ones, thoughts that had completely taken my focus away from the friendly little practice warm up I was ever so determined to crush Tweek in. Never had some asshole of a guy come back into my life after leaving the first time. I thought Clyde was gone?

Absent-minded swings took over my movement while I tried desperately to comprehend that Clyde was simply here because he was bored. He wasn’t there to see me. Was he?

“ They might close the tennis courts too… I heard a lot of the other sports are being moved to the North Park courtyard for the next couple weeks, “ he sighed then continued, “ The football team has to take a bus there after school.”

The sound of his voice in the midst of his and Tweek’s conversation behind me only interrupted my frantic internal confusion even more. Just standing there awkwardly as they shouted over my shoulder made me feel like a bigger oblivious idiot than I was before. But, Clyde just. Kept. Talking. All the way through our practice. I didn’t look back at him once. I thought maybe he’d disappear if I didn’t pay attention, aside from listening to every word he spoke. Coach eventually called us over like he rarely does and we left Clyde standing behind the fence door, waiting for us to exit the courts.

As he predicted, coach had announced to us that from now until further notice we would be taking a bus over to North Park along with all the other sports our cheap school didn’t make an indoor court for due to maintenance. He let us go pack up, and Tweek rushed to the other side of the area where clyde still stood to inform him that we would be practicing North as well. He opened up the door and exited quickly while I continued to stuff my duffle bag with everything I had before.

While I furrowed my eyebrows at the small box of spare balls I never bother to open. shoving it to the side while cramming my racket into the main pocket. While I used the rest of my strength to close the zipper without busting it ( again- it was a bitch to sit for thirty minutes trying to clip it back on ) a pair of sneakers stepped in out of the corner of my eye onto the faded white lines painted across the ground. The shoes went to their toes and the being crouched down, and Clyde sat before me while I slung my bag over my shoulder. Startled, I hitched my breath and raised my eyebrows at him. He still stood over me by a couple inches when sitting down.

“Hey dude,” he said. I cocked an eyebrow at him. Out of panic my heart started to thump, but I really didn’t feel anything toward the boy being so close so suddenly.

“H-hi,” I replied, still not breaking eye contact. His expression remained the same in our awkward silence while I waited to see why he was looking my torso up and down. i felt a little uncomfortable and backed away, averting my eyes until he spoke out again.

“You slept okay, right? You were kinda quiet practicing today.”

Who the fuck does he thi-

“...Sure,” I replied as politely as I could act, but I made sure to throw as much sarcasm in there as I could. The bags under my eyes should’ve hinted to him not to ask such a question, whether he was aware of my sleeping habits or not.

Clyde raised his eyebrows but kept his eyelids low, and made a line with his lips. The silence continued to stand still, just as we both sat quietly in front of each other. The tension started to physically make me nervous so I shifted my legs, ready to stand up, but he jump started again and started to ramble.

“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything I was just curious-” he blabbered while I followed his moment, standing up and fixing the strap slung over my shoulder. I rolled my eyes.

“It’s fine,” I said, crossing my arms. I really found it hard to be rude to this guy. Maybe it was the fact that he had made me go beet red 3 days before? I couldn’t let him blackmail me like that. I’m also pretty sure in that moment my forehead started to sweat a little, only because I knew I was being cared for again. This boy’s continuous stuttering only proves he was only wondering if I was alright. It wasn’t even that big of a deal. Clyde still averted his eyes and itched his arm whenever they were still until I just spoke up again, silencing him.

“Hey, c’mon it’s okay. You did enough last time,” I chuckled. I felt an actual, tiny smile stick onto my face, and it confused me more than trying to string together the jumble of words Clyde had before been barfing out. He looked up and turned his head to reach a hand up to wipe his eyes, which had previously had beads of water building up in them. He cleared his throat and rocked on the balls of his feet, taking glances at me while he spoke again.

“Uh, yeah... Since you’ll be riding the bus too I wanted to know if you’d ride bus buddies- I-I mean- if you wanted to sit in the same seat.” His voice quivered from letting his stress tears disappear.

He seemed nervous as heck yet slightly confident, almost as if he were only in elementary school- his puppy eyes and begging smile could’ve sold him out as a giant 1st grader. His suave comments and bragging about all the girls he gets in that fateful car ride we both experienced were shot down by his twitching hands. I could describe all the things he did in that moment, only for the very reason that all I did was freeze up and feel my cheeks go pink again. What the fuck is he doing to me. Why the hell is he asking me something like this. Is he fucking cute? Shit no, oh my god he’s kind of hotter than before oH my go d

“Uh-uhum y-yeah o-okay,” This is absolute bullshit. “I didn’t even think about who I’d be riding with,” What the fuck. What the fuck. “I thought I would just ride alone,” Why are letting him do this to you??? Holy shit you can’t breathe he’s asking to sit with you for the next couple weeks why??? Why you???  

I stood there stunned and frozen, but after replying to his odd request the most generous grin flashed from his face and practically lit up the entire courtyard. He didn’t even explain why he wanted to sit with me. I just continued to stand there with my face flaring at his grin, until he made actual physical contact and shoved my shoulder, almost knocking my weightless body over and starting my heart up again, bursting through my chest at rapid speeds. I had to grip onto my bag’s strap tighter and steady my legs, but I couldn’t cover up how I had bent over at the sudden contact.

“Thanks dude! I’ll see you tomorrow, then, “ he said, turning around and shoving his hands in his pockets. My stomach curled and I tried as hard as I could to stop the same, “ Don’t leave, stay,” emotions I had experienced not even half a week before. I stopped myself and he started away out of the tennis court, while I still stood slightly bent over, gripping my bag strap.

**So it isn’t over.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it all goes up hill from here you can count on more and more fluff every time whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


End file.
